Monday, December 14, 2020

Good News

 


Then Jesus returned to Galilee, filled with the Holy Spirit’s power.  Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region.  He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.  When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the Scriptures.  The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him.  He unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:  “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”  He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat down.  All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently.  Then he began to speak to them.  “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled this very day!”  Everyone spoke well of him and was amazed by the gracious words that came from his lips.  “How can this be?” they asked. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?”  Luke 4:14-22

If you will, imagine this isn’t Randolph County in North Carolina, but a little country backwater hamlet on Long Island named Hauppauge.  You’ve come to church and, although you haven’t seen me in quite a while, here I am.  You knew me as Rusty, the janitor’s kid, brother to the school’s basketball star, Thom.  You knew we lived on the other side of the tracks, dirt road, not much chance of being a mover and shaker. 

Without so much as a how-do-you-do, somebody hands Rusty the Scripture reading for the day.  It’s Isaiah's announcement of the Good News and I read it in a voice you never heard out of me growing up in the 1950’s.  That wouldn’t be completely strange; we welcome guests and make them feel at home.  But then, the janitor’s son takes the teacher position at the pulpit and says…what I just read to you there; it’s all about me.

Who would be the first to call the Bishop?  Anybody for grabbing a rope and heading out to the big oak tree?  At the very least, you would ask, when did you get so uppity?  You were a nice kid – not much trouble (except for that BB-gun thing that one Halloween).  Where do you get off telling us God put YOU in the Bible?

This was the atmosphere in the synagogue that day as Jesus read Isaiah’s words, and then told them they were looking at Isaiah’s message, the Good News, an announcement that everything was about to change; in fact, had already changed!

Now, rewind 30 years to an angel announcing to Joseph (somebody of the social status of Rusty’s father, the janitor at Hauppauge High School) that God's Holy Spirit would overshadow Mary, implanting within her a child who would be Savior of the world.  That activity connected man and God together, and that is Good News.  The Sound of the Christmas Angel is a chorus of Good News! 

Once we get past the issues of humanity and immaculate conception, and how a carpenter’s kid winds up as Savior of the world, we have nothing but more questions about how this is such good news? 

The answer lies in a two-fold perspective. 

It is God’s Message

God is the Creator, Provider, and Sustainer of all life.  His nature is love and truth.  Anything that He has to say is worth our attention. 

It is God’s Message We Can Receive

The gospel accounts tell us Joseph was an average fellow, an underachiever at best, who died young.  Mary was an unmarried, pregnant teenager.      

What kind of trouble was Mary in?  As a teen (in that culture), she certainly was not old enough to speak for herself - she belonged to her father; As a female, she had no rights in that male-dominated society; As a pregnant, engaged teen, she was at least apparently guilty of misconduct, serious enough to call for the death penalty. 

The message was also directed to shepherds, socially, and religiously unacceptable smelly shepherds.  I have been around sheep.  They are cute in pictures, defenseless and totally without aggression.  But they stink!  And those who lie down with sheep (to borrow an expression about dogs) get up with a distinctive air about them!  

To the least successful of Earth's inhabitants came the sound of the Christmas angel, a song of Good News.


The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.   He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair."  Isaiah 61.1-3(KJV)

The sound of the Christmas angel was a chorus of Good News. 

It wasn’t simply good advice!  Good news is so wonderful. 

·       At the end of World War II the surrender of hostile forces to the Allied countries was good news. 

·       The discovery of a polio vaccine was good news. 

·       We await the announcement of the end of AIDS, SIDS, CANCER, and of course COVID-19; any of those would be the stuff of good news.

GOOD NEWS!  We recognize the announcement of good news, but what of the meaning?  What will happen? 

·       The Good News of the end of WW2 was that the troops were coming home, families would be whole again, and the body bags would stop being shipped home. 

·       Polio vaccine meant an end to the horror of a mother and dad's anguish when the doctor would say this arm, or leg would never be used. 

·       The Good News of an AIDS, SIDS, CANCER, and COVID-19 cure would mean death has been cheated again. 

The question before the house this morning is: What of the meaning of the Good News of the Christmas Angel?

Is there a difference this Good News will make in my life? 

I want to place before you this morning the Bible's uncompromising message of faith and hope, that the good news of the Christmas angel is above the end of a world war, or the discovery of great medicines, or the successes of political polices

The good news spoken by the Christmas angel means that God has heard the cries of a lonely, forgotten, sinful world; God has heard, and He has given, and because of that we can find meaning and hope, and life can be filled with peace and assurance. 

The angel said to this frightened, pregnant teenager:  Mary, you have found favor with God.  The word is cha'ris.  Many times in the New Testament this word is translated grace, the unmerited favor of God.  A Bible dictionary calls this word …the divine influence on the heart, which is reflected in the life…when that happens to you on the inside it shows unmistakably on the outside.  The word has its' origin in a basic word that means to be cheerful, or calm about life's conditions. 

So the Christmas angel is saying to this girl in real trouble, there is every reason to be calm, God is smiling, and He wants you to smile with Him

If I were Mary, my response would have been, Yeah, right...check it out; I'm engaged, and not even old enough to date, and you're telling me I'm pregnant, and Joseph's going to buy it that the Holy Ghost did this.  You don't understand the trouble I'm in big fella!  What have I got to smile about? 

And this morning, you might be here with the same uncertainties about life that Mary carried around - You're worried that the mortgage won't get paid, or that your job is going to be phased-out, Christmas is coming and there's too much month left over at the end of the money as it is; or your marriage is in trouble, the doctor has just used the "c-word" (cancer).  And Preacher, you want me to smile because there is a God who's smiling?  Uh-huh!

Tom Allen, a pastor, and former Army Ranger, tells this story about the movie,

Saving Private Ryan.  Here’s what he said about it:

I was extremely proud until the last minute of the movie.  As the movie began, I was proud watching the Rangers take Omaha Beach.  Then the story begins when they receive a mission to go deep into enemy territory to save Private Ryan.  They hit skirmish after skirmish, and some of them are killed along the way.  They finally get to where Private Ryan is holed up, and they say, "Come with us.  We've come to save you."

He says, "I'm not going.  I have to stay here because there's a big battle coming up, and if I leave my men they're all going to die."

What do the Rangers say?  "We'll stay here and fight with you."  They all stay and fight, and it's gory and hard, and almost everyone dies except Private Ryan. At the end, one of the main characters—Tom Hanks—is sitting on the ground. He's been shot and he's dying.  The battle has been won.

Private Ryan leans over to him, and Tom Hanks whispers something to him. Everyone in the theater is crying because Tom Hanks was shot; I was crying because of what he said—it was so terrible.  Private Ryan bent down and Tom Hanks said, "Earn this."  The reason that made me angry is no Ranger would ever say, "Earn this."  Why?  Because the Ranger motto for the past 200 years has not been "Earn this."  The Ranger motto for the past 200 years has been Sua sponte, "I chose this."  I volunteered for this.

So, when Private Ryan bent down, if Tom Hanks was really a Ranger he would have said, "Sua sponte, I chose this.  This is free.  You don't pay anything for this. I give up my life for you.  That's my job."

And so when you look at the cross and see Jesus hanging there, what you do not hear is "Earn this."  You never hear Jesus say, "Earn this."  He doesn't say, "I've given everything for you.  Now you need to gut it out for me."  What he says is "Sua sponte."  I volunteered for this.  You don't have to pay anything for it.

Earn this creates the fear of unreasonable expectations, a weight which no person can bear.  The Christmas angel said "phob.e'.o not"!  Don't fear, do not be afraid!  It is the opposite of our normal fearful reaction to the calamities of life.

God's message from the Christmas angel was, Relax, everything's under control; Good news here!

What is the meaning of this good news?  No matter what crisis you face today, or tomorrow, or the eternity of tomorrows, this Jesus Christ, born so long ago, the God who became a man and lived and died among us – this same Jesus Christ is smiling....and he knows how to meet your need.  And the only requirement he places on us to be our brother is for us to have the same Father.

The sound of the Christmas angel was not simply good news; it was the BEST news this old world has ever heard.  To all the anxiety, fear, stress, every discordant note of hell, the Christmas angel announced the holy message:  God has said “ENOUGH”!  Let there be singing, and laughter, and joy.  My Son is born, and I am smiling!

Our Prayer

Father, the angels get their cue from you.  And Scripture tells us they all rejoice when even one sinner repents, changes his mind about who YOU are, and comes into the fold of YOUR forever family. 

LORD, we are so grateful in this season of Advent to prepare our hearts to celebrate that act of forgiving grace – what we can receive as a gift of Heaven, as a President’s daughter, or a janitor’s son…salvation, and the invitation to call you ABBA, Father.

For the glory, honor, and praise to which You alone are worthy, o Lord, we pray in the Name of the Son, cooperating with the Spirit, to honor and exalt the Majesty of the Father. 

Let it be so in each of our lives…Amen!

 

Title Image:  Pixabay.com   

W  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation 

Watch Sermon Video


 

No comments:

Post a Comment